Wednesday, June 15, 2016

I checked, the last submission was October 30th,
and I had intentions of being back real soon.
Two weeks after that I got very sick.
For three months I did next to nothing and certainly did not work on
Tiny Kitty or the blog. Turns out all those things I thought were
allergies, were not. After testing, it
seems I am allergic to anything, and I have asthma. So, after some aggressive treatment to get my
bronchitis all better, am now on a daily regimen that has be all happy and
working again. Once well, and I am well, and a 100%, I began
to get back on track. I have completed a few projects and intend to share in
the days and months to come as I am really proud of the work I did on the dolls. And I am really glad to be working to see if
I can finish this Edwardian day dress for Tiny Kitty. Little by little I catch up to where I feel
comfortable and not pressured to deliver things on a deadline.

Let’s talk about Tiny Kitty

A little recap, please.
Tiny Kitty is a Tonner, Inc. doll, and is 10”. My Kitty came to me via the convention souvenir
of the UFDC convention in Washington, D.C. in 2013. The theme was “A Capitol Affair”. This doll
came packaged beautifully in her flip top box with a peignoir on the left and a
fan and she was dressed as Mrs. Helen Taft
in her inaugural gown of 1909. The gown
was exquisitely presented with gloves and heels and jewels. She is a pretty doll of 10”. She is jointed, I would not say fully ball
jointed, but she has some positioning ability.

The inspiration illustration of the dress shows a drawing of a dress over a chemisette
which appeared to be either a delicate print or an eyelet. Researching the period I found a chemisette of the period and used that as an example. I have a beautiful 100% cotton eyelet fabric
from Urban Gardens Fabrics, that has a small scale embroidery. I chose to use it for the chemisette. Also, I didn’t want to use anything that
appeared too contemporary in a print.

Now that the chemisette is complete, I can continue with the
dress. I have added a sneak peak of her
fitting for her dress. I hope you
enjoy.

Friday, October 30, 2015

As promised
I am back again working on Tiny Kitty and her new cotton dress. Thought I would share the inspiration dress
with you so here it is.

1910

While
figuring out the pattern, I had been diligently looking for my blue striped
fabric. THE perfect fabric you know you have but for some reason you are unable
to locate it? Yesterday I finally found
and sadly, there is not enough to create the dress. And if there was, there is certainly
insufficient fabric for mistakes. Curses!!! (Because you know I will make a mistake.)

Blue solid and striped fabrics

Since my
Tiny Kitty has these blue ribbons as accents on her slip, I wanted to keep everything for this figure
in blue, but it is not to be.Serendipity,
however, is still alive and kicking in my favor.I have a found another wonderful fabric in my
stash. The fabric is a pretty pink, white and blue striped oxford shirt
fabric.It is nice and soft, but still
has the sizing that oxford cloth sometimes has.I am hoping that will work in my favor. The solid pink fabric is
handkerchief linen, very soft.White Swiss batiste has been selected for the
lining or base garment.

Pink solid and striped fabrics

I have been working
on the pattern and stitched it together.
Though it appears to work, I think there is something wrong with
it. I am not sure what it is, but I am thinking I
have a small error. I am sure I will
figure it out as I go. (At least there
is a lot of fabric here…just in case!)
And I have no idea at this writing how I am going to recreate the
closures. It also appears I need to
create a chemisette for this dress so she will have the pretty eyelet
collar. I purchased some new eyelet form
Urban Gardens Fabrics and I think it will be perfect. If not, well, I’ll surprise you with
something. Or will try.

Okay, need
to get busy making. Will update you with
the progress. Until then,

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Earlier this
year my husband I went to Williamsburg, VA to visit his sister. While there we went to Colonial Williamsburg
a couple times during the weekend. (Lots
of walking, go when it is cool.) We did have a marvelous time. (when I wasn’t complaining about the heat) I
remember when we went last, a few decades ago, and one parked at the fence-line
and walked straight in. Like any little
town it has grown into quite the little business center. There is an entire welcome center and a hotel
and more. If you do go, decide to eat
there, the food is wonderful. And do not
miss the museum! Besides being air
conditioned, still complaining about the heat, the additions have been
completed. You would never know you were underground! I stopped at one point to rest and listen to
the pianoforte. I fell in love with the
different sounds. You will, too!

In the textile room, I took more pictures than probably
allowed of the needlework and clothing.

The
following day I went back to Mary Dickinson’s store. I had Grace in mind and
was hoping to find fabrics to make her a dress.
In the shop were fabrics that are original reproductions of designs from
Colonial Williamsburg. The dyes and the
printing are by direct specifications. I
bought one fabric I thought would possibly have use for a period garment for
Grace. The other fabrics I purchased were from the
internet. It was true serendipity as the
fabrics look so well together.

IIt seems I always make a mistake! The fabrics in the center and on the RIGHT are from Past Crafts.

Since I
always say, ‘I have no original ideas’, I decided to check my books and, of
course, the internet to find inspiration for this large pattern. Grace is an 8” tall doll, the fabrics could
overwhelm her easily. Finally, searching
through Pinterest I found an inspiration dress and more or less, set to
work.

I used the wonderful patterns
created for this doll by Sheryl Williams. (They were on the CD that came with
our digital journal.) You can never go
wrong with anything from Sheryl. I sing
her praises each time I get to take a class or use her patterns. Simply the best. For this project I did modify the bodice a
little. I did not use the skirt front
panel and I cut the overdress length to create the shorter jacket style.

Modification
of an old Marie Antoinette Fichu pattern was the final addition to her
dress. The entire costume is quite busy
and yet it still seems to be balanced.

I did not
feel the rendering complete without a hat, and also found a sample of a period
hat from the Metropolitan Museum. I have
a sweet piece of fabric from Urban Gardens Fabrics that had the look of the
antique and created the pattern from scratch.
I love it, but think there could be some modifications. Sometimes one just dives in. (Since starting this post, I have found an
old pattern to create the hat. Perhaps
next time?)

What would
our young miss be doing in her simple costume?
I figured she could be out for a simple walk, and collecting flowers? I
like that idea and have a basket for her and am creating a bunch of flowers
from a kit. Maybe another post about
Grace will come as her wardrobe and accessories grow.

Kathi

PS. I
have been asked about patterns for these dolls I create, and have not yet
thought about making them available for purchase. If you are interested, please leave me a note
and I will get back to you on this

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Beautiful work, Right? I have saved this picture as inspiration since I first saw it.

Let’s go
back in time, just a little bit, to 2009 and my first convention with
UFDC. The convention souvenir was a doll
named ‘Grace’, and a little beauty she is.
The doll sculpt is by Beverly Walters, and turned over for the mass
production that (sadly) goes into doll making these days. I do love her. (Read original article about Grace here :)

Being mass-produced, the dolls were fair
of face and did not have quite the detail of a beautiful hand painted
doll. Darlene Lane, master doll maker if
there ever was one, had shown the above repaint of her souvenir. That face is a
charmer. No surprise, and I wanted a
repaint for myself. I sat on this idea
and kept the saved the repaint picture for inspiration.

Through the years, I have wondered if I could do a repaint, too.

A few months ago, a couple of dolly
dressing friends of mine, and I were
talking about these repainted doll heads, or embellished doll faces, and I
thought I would like to give it a try.
Both friends had extra dolls and were game for me trying to repaint
their dolls, too!

In a couple of weeks, the dolls arrived
and I labeled the heads. I set up work
space and was ready for the job at hand.
I keep my class notes for painting order and followed that that painting
guide. My first step was to paint nose
dots, eye dots, some lip liner. Into the
Paragon Quick Fire they go.

Several hours later, the porcelain cooled,
time to lift the lid. I was so
excited! Oh, no! All of the hair had fired off. Okay, insert expletives here! I had no idea what to do next! What had I been I thinking? I was so disappointed and shocked and could
not bear the thought of reporting the event to my friends. I had ruined their dolls. What would you do? I slept on it.

Yikes, no hair!

(Let me pause for a moment to
say something about the doll industry.
It’s a tough industry, competitive, cut throat at times. However, that can be the story of anything,
any job, any endeavor at any time. Usually, I am too intimidated to approach some “famous” person, or
self-conscious about my skills or knowledge, or just feel inferior to the
person with whom I want to talk.
Nevertheless, I get up the nerve and just do it.)

I decided to go to the source of my
inspiration, Darlene Lane. I had never
met Darlene Lane, but admired her skills. Gathering my courage, I sent her
an email. Lucky me! She wrote back. Boy, what a font of information
and you know what, it wasn’t just me, it happened to her as well. She shared so much about her experience, the
history, and the solutions. Darlene even
surprised me by sending the color she used to return the hair to the same or so
close as to be the same, hair color. I
could not have done it without her.

Hair and face complete.

After overcoming the hair challenge, it
was smooth sailing, mostly. I managed to
get the hair painted, and the eyes and brows and lips all highlighted and the
color deepened. I hit another snag with
the 3D paste, or Rochard paste, and had to improvise, but I overcame this as
well. Due to the position in the kiln, I
was unable to fire the paste or even the white appropriately for my Grace. I have since, sanded the hair ornaments, and
added half pearls for earrings and the hair ornaments for my doll.

My Grace completed!

Have Fun! Kathi

PS.
Tiny Kitty
and her Edwardian costume will resume shortly.
In the meantime, illness (all’s well), travel and the dreaded computer
breakdown and upgrade have caused me to be quite behind. The inspiration
dress and fabrics are selected; the pattern is made but is being fitted. I’ll be back soon.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Just a quick note to let you know that alterations
were made to Tiny Kitty’s undergarments.
I have made a small digital layout for you to know the changes I made. (Elements
are from Scrapgirls, LLC) The new
pictures will show the better fit for her slip and explain the changes I
made. She is so much happier with her
garments.

I will be away for a couple weeks before continuing
to work on Miss Kitty’s Edwardian clothes.
Until I return, I will be taking a class, and taking a small vacation to
visit friends. While I am busy with
these things, I will also be working on the pattern for the inspiration dress. I keep reinterpreting the assembly
process. I do want to try for a new pair
of shoes, too! It will be a
challenge.

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Creative Doll

The Creative Doll exists to inform and delight. The team of Michelle Mahler of Doll Artist's Workshop (minidolls.com) and Kathi R. Mendenhall, La Petite Belle Patterns (minipatterns.com) are doll makers and doll lovers. We hope to bring you interesting finds, things to muse and to help you to create.